Apple sold 2 million iPhone 5 units in China launch weekend

Sales of the iPhone 5 topped two million units in its first weekend of availability in China, Apple announced Sunday evening.

"Customer response to iPhone 5 in China has been incredible, setting a new record with the best first weekend sales ever in China," said Tim Cook, Apples CEO. "China is a very important market for us and customers there cannot wait to get their hands on Apple products."

The iPhone 5 launched in China last Friday, Dec. 14. Apple's latest smartphones will be available in more than 100 countries by the end of December, making it the fastest iPhone rollout ever.

Apple's announcement on Sunday only disclosed sales of the iPhone 5 in China, and did not include the 32 other countries where the iPhone 5 went on sale last Friday.

Some pundits expressed concern that lines for the iPhone 5 were shorter than usual at Apple's retail stores throughout China. But that was by design, as Apple switched to an online reservation system in response to rampant scalping and incidents of violence during previous product launches.

Signs of a record breaking debut for the iPhone 5 in China came last week, when it was announced that preorders for the handset through carrier China Unicom exceeded 300,000 as of last Monday. In comparison, China Unicom saw 200,000 preorders for the iPhone 4S, suggesting demand is even greater for Apple's latest model.

Availability of the iPhone 5 was also greater than previous models: The iPhone 4S launched only on one carrier, China Unicom, while the iPhone 5 debuted on two, adding China Telecom to the mix.

You've become quite the Apple hater recently. Should we blame it on possible stock losses because you happened to bet wrong?

It should be noted that the iPhone 5 is more expensive for Chinese in China because of various taxes that are applied to imports. I've read that it's cheaper to pay a scalper who buys in the US and flies the product back to China instead of buying the item in China proper.

As an Apple shareholder, this is good news. I wonder how some in the media might try to spin this. Apple should open positively with this news tomorrow but one never knows these days.

well the clowns on MacRumors are claiming 2M out of a population of 1.3B is nothing. Of course assuming anything close to 1.3B can afford a smartphone in China is laughable. I'd love to know how many S3's were sold over 3 days in China.

The media can try and spin this in a negative way but the way they were reporting it you'd think no one in China was buying an iPhone.

Originally Posted by Rogifan
Well Citigroup just downgraded AAPL to neutral because they don't think iPhone sales are strong. That will drive AAPL stock down tomorrow.

So will there ever be anything even remotely resembling an apology when these LIARS and IDIOTS manipulating the stock are wrong? Is there any legal recourse that Apple can take to protect themselves from this?

If not, this is basically the financial world equivalent of it being illegal for us to remove spam from the forum. But obviously infinitely more important, given that it's money involved.

Apple needs to buy itself and go private again. Keep breaking all of its sales and profit records quarter after quarter with no one to please but its customers, and be able to give two thumbs down (and simultaneously two birds up) to the analysts and shorters.

You've become quite the Apple hater recently. Should we blame it on possible stock losses because you happened to bet wrong?

It should be noted that the iPhone 5 is more expensive for Chinese in China because of various taxes that are applied to imports. I've read that it's cheaper to pay a scalper who buys in the US and flies the product back to China instead of buying the item in China proper.

Apple hater? I've never posted one negative thing about Apple.

By the way... if you were really paying attention you'd know that this symbol, "¡", is used to indicate sarcasm.

By the way 2... only 2 million sold could be viewed in a negative way... even though, to the best of my knowledge, no other manufacturer has even come close to this figure.

... and, no, I bounced out with a small loss and am waiting for a price in the 400s... the death cross said it all.

You've become quite the Apple hater recently. Should we blame it on possible stock losses because you happened to bet wrong?

It should be noted that the iPhone 5 is more expensive for Chinese in China because of various taxes that are applied to imports. I've read that it's cheaper to pay a scalper who buys in the US and flies the product back to China instead of buying the item in China proper.

He's always been a bit of an enigma but tends to the hater side, yes. However it must be pointed out that growing frustration with investor's seemingly panicked reaction lately when it comes to AAPL is grating on the nerves. Just about every credible analyst out there repeats that there is no logical reason for this pull back considering the continued stellar performance of the company. All the metrics are rising but it seems everybody is just sitting there waiting for Apple to implode into nothingness and disappear. Irrational exuberance has given way to panicked pessimism. Because of the size of lines in front of a store? Really?